Heat Chills

Posted on August 30, 2009 in Fact-Dropping Weather

Strange thing about the heat. When it passes the temperature of the human body outside, you start feeling chills. It’s like wearing a raincoat, but at the same time you feel hot.

Back in high school, we conducted an experiment that explained this. You put a pin in ice water, then touched the head to various parts of the skin. In some places you felt cold. In others nothing at all.

You have both cold receptors and warmth receptors in your skin. The interesting thing is that when you get hot enough, the cold receptors start sending messages to your brain. Hence you get heat chills.

It’s 102 F (39 C) at the moment. Even with air conditioning, I can feel the frigid blast of the heat wave coming through my window.